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Welcome to the web site of the Native Hawaiian Legal Defense and Education Fund (NHLDEF). Our organization is a Hawaii based non-profit corporation established in 2005. Our purpose is to improve the lives of Native Hawaiians by promoting their civil rights through legal, political, and educational efforts. Our goal is to advocate for programs, policies, and laws that will protect both present and future generations of Native Hawaiians.
Currently, Native Hawaiian rights are at severe risk due to recent adverse legal decisions against Hawaiian interests. In Rice v. Cayetano, decided in February 2000, the United States Supreme Court held that Hawaiians are just a racial minority and are not entitled to special treatment as indigenous people of America. As a result, Hawaiians-only voting for OHA trustees was struck down as unconstitutional.
Additional lawsuits against Hawaiians followed, culminating in a stinging legal decision, by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on August 2, 2005. A majority of the court struck down the Hawaiians-only admissions policy to attend Kamehameha Schools.
People living in Hawaii know that Kamehameha Schools is a private charitable trust which derives its revenues from former Hawaiian monarchy lands. This private trust existed long before Hawaii became a part of the United States and was established in 1884 by the will of Bernice Pauahi Bishop, a Hawaiian Princess. Its purpose is to provide an education to the indigenous people of Hawaii.
These indigenous people had been decimated by disease due to contact with the Western world. By 1884 only 40,000 Hawaiians remained from the hundreds of thousands living in Hawaii on its discovery by Captain James Cook in 1778. Of these 40,000 survivors the vast majority of them lived in ignorance and poverty. To end this cycle of hopelessness Pauahi’s trust funded the Kamehameha Schools with a preference for Hawaiians.
NHLDEF continues to work with the Kamehameha Schools to inform, educate, or explain the effect that the decision in Doe v. Kamehameha will have on Hawaiians, other private charitable organizations, and private gift giving to a racial minority. In conjunction with the Kamehameha Alumni Association, NHLDEF representatives helped conduct the “March and Rally for Justice” in San Francisco on August 20. 2005. Since that date NHLDEF has met with California governmental leaders to discuss Native Hawaiian issues. NHLDEF has conducted people events like prayer vigils drawing attention to the plight of Native Hawaiians. NHLDEF has engaged in networking using Internet tools such as bulletin boards, e-mail lists, and websites. NHLDEF is working with the University of Hawaii to aid in the development of Hawaiian lawyers.
Although NHLDEF is dedicated to Hawaiian interests, we believe that what we do is good for all people. Let it be clearly stated, we do not condone racial discrimination. Yet the preservation of a unique people is as important as saving the green salamander or the horn toed frog.
Assimilation has extinguished many indigenous native groups. Extinction of a people results in extinction of a culture. With loss of culture comes a loss of the enriching experiences that a specific ethnic group passes on to future generations.
As an example, Greek theater and Elizabethan theater preserves for posterity all that is culturally good, valuable, and unique from each of these ethnic groups. Imagine for a moment the loss to world betterment if the plays of the Greek authors had not been preserved over the centuries. Yet this could have occurred if the Persian King Darius had won at Salamis 2400 years ago. And suppose Lord Nelson had been defeated at Trafalgar, would Shakespeare still be the penultimate playwright of the Western World?
There was a time in Hawaii where missionaries in their zeal to convert and Christianize Hawaiians, banned the speaking of the Hawaiian language, hula, and other aspects of Hawaiian culture. This banning poses ultimate questions for any civilized society. Do native peoples have a right to preserve their culture and hence their unique identity? Is there an ethical duty to advocate cultural preservation? Is the extinction of the green salamander a greater loss to civilization than the extinction of the creators of the hula, the progenitors of canoe paddling and surf riding, the ultimate proponents of celestial and wave navigation, the authors of the aloha spirit? Should it be the goal of any civilized people to save a unique culture and ethnic group?
The Constitution of the State of Hawaii answers these questions: “The state shall promote the study of Hawaiian culture, history, and language.” (Section 4 of Article X) If you love Hawaii then you should follow the example set by our Constitution and preserve Hawaiian culture.
Thank you for considering these thoughts. I hope that you will find other provocative and interesting concepts to ponder upon as you review the many articles on this website.
Aloha,
William J. Fernandez
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